This 28-year-old woman presented with a large hyperpigmented patch on the right side of her upper back. Although the lesion developed over the past 2 years, it has been "sinking in" over the past 2 weeks. The patient denies any trauma, pain, discomfort, or pruritis, as well as any family history of cancers, lymphoma, or autoimmune disease. However, she has a history of gastroesophageal reflux disease and onychomycosis, and her grandfather has a similar lesion.
Her headaches haven't improved with prednisone. It's not meningitis. Your tests show negative for vasculitis but positive for Lyme. Can you guess the diagnosis?
While rhabdomyolysis has been recognized as a consequence of crush injuries since the late 1800s, the most significant step toward finding the condition's causes, mechanisms, and management strategies occurred when physicians who treated crush injuries from the 1941 London Blitz identified a link between rhabdomyolysis and renal impairment.
Biologics have added a decade to the lifespan of rheumatoid arthritis patients since only the start of this century. The impact of age on that treatment has been a subject of intense study.
A small case series suggests that the mTOR inhibitor sirolimus has fewer adverse events and similar efficacy to other options for steroid-refractory hepatitis.
(AUDIO) David Pisetsky MD, new President-elect of the US Bone and Joint Initiative, offers his perspective.on the role of rheumatologists in a patient-centered, multidisciplinary medical future.
About one in 20 patients with genital chlamydia, the most prevalent sexually transmitted disease in the US, progress to reactive arthritis. This is simple to treat, but devilish to detect and diagnose.
Although hospitals routinely implement peer review processes to ensure that physicians are meeting the prevailing standards of care, the procedure has been associated with controversy.
Combining results from studies involving nearly 12,000 rheumatoid arthritis patients finds the fusion protein etanercept less likely than other TNF inhibitors to be discontinued due to infections.
A month after being diagnosed with gout, this woman returned for care with pain, swelling, and effusion in both knees. Can you guess the diagnosis?
Patients with osteoporosis got some good news at a recent conference when the results of a study showed that taking the drug denosumab can help increase bone density and keep their rate of fractures at a low level.
This is the tale of a 51-year-old man with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) who fell backwards from standing height while climbing out of the bath, and landed on his back.
(EULAR 2014) New research finds erectile dysfunction common among gout patients, and distinctive differences between men and women in predisposing factors and treatment risks.
(EULAR 2014) A comparative study has found cranial ultrasound more sensitive and no less specific than temporal artery biopsy, the current gold standard, for diagnosing giant cell arteritis.
(EULAR 2014) The first international guidelines on the treatment of polymyalgia rheumatica have been finalized and presented at the European rheumatologists conference this week in Paris. Publication is forthcoming.
For the first time a study has linked prednisone and other drugs, as well as severity of disease, with difficulty conceiving among women who have rheumatoid arthritis.
The high volume of distal radius procedures combined with an elevated risk for adverse outcomes such as malunion, loss of radial length, inclination, and volar or dorsal angulation make surgeries in the forearm ripe for malpractice claims.
A radiograph to detect the presence of a cervical rib should be mandatory prior to thoracic outlet syndrome surgery as a baseline study.
Reasons why women with lupus change from azathioprine to mycophenolate mofetil or vice versa are different, as is the success of switching.
Is the Atkins diet associated with an increased risk of gout flares? Other rheumatologists want to hear the answer from your clinical experience.
New from Europe: Two questionnaires to help you and your patients assess the impact of psoriatic arthritis on their lives. Both are available online, in English, for free.
Although the primary outcomes of the US National Institutes of Health Women's Health Initiative trial suggested daily calcium plus vitamin D supplementation significantly reduced hip fracture in postmenopausal women, a follow-up investigation found no difference in hip fracture incidence between the study's supplement and placebo groups nearly 5 years after the intervention phase ended.
Could MRI detect the early signs of danger in patients who have not yet manifested symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis? New research suggests it can.
Since inactivity accounts for 10-16% of breast cancers, colon cancers, and diabetes cases, as well as 22% of heart disease, some researchers believe too much sitting can cause just as much harm as smoking.
When does gout need treatment? A new set of staging criteria hopes to clarify the answer, and a separate report warns of the risks of unjustified treatment.
For antiphospholipid syndrome, some alternatives to vitamin K antagonists including rituximab and hydroxychloroquine may be suitable, says an international task force. Two clinical trials are recruiting to provide better information.
Patients find it very attractive to self-select a variety of vitamins and supplements that promise to improve their immune system and combat obesity without any dangers or dependence on healthcare professionals, but these claims are just not true.
Honey bee venom is being used to treat pain for multiple sclerosis and osteoarthritis, according to a report from CBS News.
For spinal rheumatic conditions like psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis, new research supports aquatic therapies, especially at first, and specialized programs like Pilates.
For people diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis that show only mild symptoms of joint pain and swelling, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are usually the first treatment option to consider.
